Google will now let you auto-delete location history and web activity data

Google has finally decided to deliver on its promise to roll out a feature that lets you auto-delete location history and web activity data.

Announcing that an auto-delete tool will be made available to users back in May, Google, in a blog post, has now confirmed that the feature is rolling out to Android and iOS. As per a report by Engadget however, the feature is only available for location history data and not for ‘app and web activity’ data just yet. That is expected to arrive in a few weeks.

Auto-delete controls for Location History start rolling out today on Android and iOS, making it even easier for you to manage your data → https://t.co/dX1uoqcR8O pic.twitter.com/Oc3fk66QNm

— Google (@Google) June 26, 2019

How to activate the auto-delete feature?

You simply have to go to your Google Account’s ‘My Activity’ section and tap on the new “choose to delete automatically” option. Unfortunately though, Google, for now, has you stuck with a choice between 3 or 18 months and nothing in between or beyond.

The good news is that selecting either option will automatically delete all the Location History data older than the specified period.

Do bear in mind that this setting isn’t turned on by default. Google’s default behaviour is still to collect all that data and it still will be up to users to stop or control what it does gather.

As usual with any specific feature Google rolls out, don’t expect to see this right away. It might take weeks for the feature to propagate to all devices out there.